Willamette Valley Spring Migration Phenology

Western Oregon Birding Calendar

Western Oregon Birding Calendar

This calendar provides information on migrant phenology, to give an indication of when to look
for bird species to arrive.
Typical “fall” or “southbound” arrival (↓) dates and “spring” or “northbound” arrival (↑) dates are indicated by bird species names and arrow symbols in different colors, as explained in the key at the bottom of the calendar.Please note the compiler’s acknowledgements below the calendar. These folks have put in a lot of work to make this information readily available. Also Joel Geier deserves an acknowledgement as well. He provided this data in multiple formats

Key to symbols and colors used for bird arrival dates:
↑[species name] indicates “spring” arrivals of species that either nest in Oregon or continue northward.†
↓[species name] indicates “fall” arrivals of species that either winter in Oregon or continue southward.†
®[species name] indicates selected rarities (with year of occurrence in parentheses).
Note that dates may not correspond eactly in the case of leap-year records,
as this calendar is based on day numbers (number of days from Jan 1) in each year.Typical arrival dates for the Corvallis area based on
spring migrant phenology compiled by Alan McGieplus a fall migrant phenology (draft in progress) compiled by Alan McGie and Joel Geier.Typical arrival dates for the Eugene/Springfield area based on
spring migrant phenology compiled by Tom MickelTypical arrival dates for the Portland Metro area based on
spring migrant phenology compiled by Christopher & Adrian Hinkle† The terms “northbound” and “southbound” are used here as generalizations;
many of Oregon’s migrants have an east/west component and/or elevational component to their movements.
The phenology for Willamette Valley locations includes arrivals of elevational migrants such as
Varied Thrush.

UPDATE (06 May 2014): One of the Pacific Northwest’s birding luminaries, David Irons, has put together an excellent narrative: A Spring Migration Phenology for Western Oregon.
David obviously put a lot of time into this work. In addition to just dates he discusses some of the ID challenges faced during migration. It’s well done and worth the read.

Thank you so much Greg! Our primary interest is the Vaux’s Swifts in Eugene. My wife did some good goggling, we saw youtubes for the Eugene stop anywhere from Sept. 15 to 25th — which seems to fit pretty well with the 10-day span for the spring migration.

Fall migration phenology has now been added as separate page. However, the fall phenology for the mid-valley hasn’t been sorted out as well as spring. Please see that page for attributions and caveats regarding the data.

What a wonderful calendar! I live in Tillamook Oregon and am worried about the swallow migration. My little valley is typically filled with them and this year there are 3!! Very scary and I was wondering if maybe they just hadn’t arrived yet but June seems very late now for their arrival.